Monday 30 January 2023

Who On Earth Thinks 'More Police' Isn't A Good Thing..?

The Runnymede Trust race equality think tank found 979 Safer Schools Officers (SSOs) in schools last spring, compared with 683 in 2021.

Well, that comes as no surprise... 

The Runnymede Trust gathered the Freedom of Information data following the case of Child Q, a 15-year-old black girl who was strip-searched by the Metropolitan Police at school without an appropriate adult present.

And we still don't know why she smelled so strongly of cannabis the search was initiated. It's as if that doesn't matter.  

Police officers have worked in schools for decades and were formally introduced in the Safer Schools Partnership programme in 2002. The programme is something schools can choose to sign up to.

No doubt we can look to the usual suspects for a forthcoming campaign to 'persuade' schools not to do so.  

But some campaigners and community leaders are worried SSOs are doing more harm than good.
Dr Shabna Begum, head of research at the Runnymede Trust, is concerned schools could be leaning too heavily on police to sort out "quite trivial" behavioural or pastoral problems that should be dealt with by teaching staff. If this is happening, black children may face harsher consequences - creating a pathway to the criminal justice system.

Yes, but police aren't putting them on that pathway, are they? They are stepping on it themselves...

5 comments:

Bucko said...

Black people are above the law. Some protected minority groups behave that way, black people actually come out and say it

Anonymous said...

It's a lose-lose situation for the police. If they withdraw from schools then crime will increase and they will get criticised, if they stay then certain communities will object.
Jaded

Nemisis said...


"Safer Schools" and the Met rang faint bells.
It didn’t take our good friend Google long to remind me why – Max Coopey’s mother was (still is?) a “Safer Schools Officer” in the Met. . . . .
The Met cannot win.
By the way, has anyone seen this little bit of poo recently?

Barbarus said...

A school that requires police on site is not one I want any child of mine attending. Either they can't do discipline at all, or they have discipline problems they can't handle; probably both. In any case, classes will be permanently chaotic and the actual delivery of education nonexistent.

JuliaM said...

"Some protected minority groups behave that way, black people actually come out and say it"

The inevitable consequences of all the pandering...

"It's a lose-lose situation for the police. "

Only if they continue to listen to the wrong sector of the public, Jaded...

"It didn’t take our good friend Google long to remind me why – Max Coopey’s mother was (still is?) a “Safer Schools Officer” in the Met. . . "

I'm still waiting for him to slip up again!

" Either they can't do discipline at all, or they have discipline problems they can't handle..."

It's a HUUUUUGE red flag, isn't it?